Citations and Bibliography

(These guidelines were originally drafted for an essay contest, sponsored by the New York Council on the Humanities, that my 11^th graders were encouraged to enter. I have deleted the specific requirements for that contest; what remain are some general guidelines that may be usefully adapted for any serious research paper written by your students.)

When to Use Citations

This is the most difficult and important issue because by not citing your sources when necessary, you run the risk of plagiarism, intellectual theft. Some general principles are as follows:

*Obviously, you must cite direct quotations, someone else’s words.

*If you borrow an idea or even information that is not generally known, and then paraphrase it (put it into your own words), you must also identify your source.

*In paraphrasing, if you repeat an author’s apt phrase without quotation marks and without a citation, you have committed plagiarism.

To make these points more concrete, let’s suppose that I am writing a paper on Melville and I want to use the following material from Beneath the American Renaissance by David S. Reynolds (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989):

It was Melville’s democratic openness to wild forces within his contemporary

popular culture that distinguished him from his more snobbish literary

colleagues. Like many American writers of the day, he wished to produce literature

that was both national and universal: but for him nationality could be achieved only

by immersion in the people’s literature, even when it was crude and violent. This open-

ness to sensational popular literature was not shared by his fellows in the Young

America literary movement, . . .

Let’s say I write this:

Melville, like many American writers of his day, wished to write fiction that was at once

universal and national. His democratic openness to popular culture, however, distinguished

him from his more snobbish literary friends.

I’ve plagiarized because I’ve taken an idea without crediting my source; even if I were to cite Reynolds, I’ve used words and phrases that are too close to his in my paraphrase.

This version, with a note, would be acceptable:

According to David Reynolds, Melville was like many writers of his day in wishing

to write books that were “both national and universal.” Unlike “his more snobbish

literary colleagues” in the Young America literary movement, however, Melville looked

to “sensational popular literature” to achieve nationality.

Format of Citations

For papers in humanities classes—literature, history, art history, etc.—it is recommended that you use the “documentary-note or humanities style” as specified in The Chicago Manual of Style. With this style, you provide bibliographic information in the first citation to a given source; for subsequent citations to that source you use a short form. Here are some sample notes (and bibliographic entries) for most of the types of works you will be citing. (Borrow my Chicago Manual for special cases.)

For a book with a single author:

First Citation:

Emery Blackfoot, Chance Encounters (Boston: Serendipity Press, 1987), 35.

Subsequent Citation:

Blackfoot, Chance Encounters, 65.

Bibliography:

Blackfoot, Emery. Chance Encounters. Boston: Serendipity Press, 1987.

For a book with an editor (or translator--trans.):

First Citation:

John Stuart Mill, Autobiography and Literary Essays, ed. John M. Robson and Jack Stillinger (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1980), 15.

Subsequent Citation:

Mill, Autobiography, 17.

Bibliography:

Mill, John Stuart. Autobiography and Literary Essays. Edited by John M. Robson and Jack Stillinger. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1980.

For an introduction to a book:

First:

Mark Harris, introduction to With the Procession, by Henry Fuller (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986), 13.

Subsequent:

Harris, introduction to With the Procession, 57.

Bibliography:

Harris, Mark. Introduction to With the Procession, by Henry Fuller. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986.

For a revised edition, second edition, etc.:

First:

Halsey Stevens, The Life and Music of Bela Bartok, rev. ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1964), 128-29.

Bibliography:

Stevens, Halsey. The Life and Music of Bela Bartok. Rev. ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1964.

For a journal article:

First:

Noel Robertson, “The Dorian Migration and Corinthian Ritual,” Classical Philology 75 (1980): 17, 19-20.

(That’s the author, article, periodical, volume number, date, and page numbers.)

Bibliography:

Robertson, Noel. “The Dorian Migration and Corinthian Ritual.” Classical Philology 75 (1980): 1-22.

A useful addition to a research paper in the humanities is an annotated bibliography. In addition to publication information, the entry characterizes the source and explains how it, notes how it might extend or revise understanding

*Next comes the annotated bibliography. “In this section, the student should provide a brief characterization of each source read or consulted, indicating how it contributed to an understanding of the topic, and describing its point of view, where appropriate.”